Officials in Trumbull took out their frustrations with Connecticut’s affordable housing laws during a recent meeting with a local developer.
That developer is looking to build an apartment complex of up to 105 units on Reservoir Avenue in Trumbull. The project would utilize the state’s affordable housing law, which requires municipalities to make at least 10% of their housing stock affordable.
The law also allows developers of various affordable housing projects to override local zoning laws in communities that aren’t currently meeting the affordable housing mandate. This means developers can construct large apartment complexes – even if local zoning officials object to the idea – as long as they have a portion of affordable units.
Trumbull Planning and Zoning Commissioner Fred Garrity said at a meeting last week that the state law basically gives towns two options: “pick A and work with us, or we’re going to give you B and you have no choice. That’s where we are today.”
Currently, 5.2% of Trumbull’s housing is considered affordable, meaning developers would be able to circumvent local zoning specifications if the proposed project has at least 30% affordable units.
Commissioner Richard Croll criticized the lawmakers behind the affordable housing law, which has been in place since 1989.
“The state we live in, we got a lot of radicals, we got a lot of Communists in the state,” Croll said. “A lot of people that end up in Hartford, their communities aren’t sending the best and the brightest. They end up creating a lot of convoluted laws.”
Croll didn’t immediately respond to an interview request from Connecticut Public.
State law says communities not meeting the 10% goal, must prove in court why the development shouldn’t be approved due to health or safety concerns.
Stephen Shapiro, the developer behind the Reservoir Avenue project, said the planning and zoning commissioners took out their frustrations with the law on him.
“I was hoping for some positive suggestions,” Shapiro told the commissioners during the meeting. “It’s a state law. I didn’t pass the state law, guys.”
Shapiro later told Connecticut Public a town meeting was not the place to air out political differences and call elected officials “not the brightest.”
The meeting was a pre-application discussion, intended to give Shapiro a better idea of what the town needs or wants before submitting a formal project application. No votes were taken during the meeting.
Shapiro wants town officials to decide what’s best, but said his lawyer is pursuing other approaches to getting the project approved, he said.
“To get a response like that when you go to a commission, I mean, it's a little disappointing, but at the end of the day, I'd like to be a successful project, and I'd like it to be successful for the town of Trumbull as well,” Shapiro said.
